Giant Bombcast 10/27/2015

I beat The Witcher 3 and I agree with a lot of what the guys say. The story is the only reason to play that game, the movement and the controls never felt good. They always seemed laggy as shit and by the time I was at the point Dan was I just wanted the game to end. Too bad there was another 10-15 hours of game to go through.

I'd have to go back and listen to the bombcasts from around the game's launch, but didn't some members of the site actually like Witcher 3 when it came out? I can understand the complaints before all the patches took hold, like the original controls being jerky, but it seems like a total about face has taken hold around here.

No big deal really, like what you like and all that, but now I just think I'm going crazy thinking someone on staff liked the game...

And come on people, don't talk about GOTY like it's some kind of holy grail - It's just going to, once again, get Destiny shoehorned into it anyway.

Oh please totally do Retro E-mails.

The talk on Witcher 3 continues to surprise me, but then again Vinny was the only one that really got into the series before, (but i love how they already knew this conversation was going to start a reaction in the comments and cut it short)

I think all the complaints about the gameplay and the little annoyances with the UI and inventory, while a little harsh, i understand their view.

Its a case where the good overlooks the bad as for me, Its the story, characters and world is what converted me to being one of those diehards for the series (and this is my first Witcher game i got invested into, and i actually want to go back and read the books ). this was one of those games where the story and characters really resonated in a way few games do. yes, there is a overarching save the world grand plot in motion, but its a very very characters driven story just as much.

Its the way CD Projekt does character moments, story moments, and atmosphere make them for my money, one of the very best in the industry. and the fact that their next game is cyberpunk, and they already spoke about learning their lessons from this game, is super exciting.

(also, other than possibly vinny, there's probably no chance the team will look at it given their schedules, but the 1st expansion for Witcher 3, is a very standalone self contained story that really showcases the strengths of the series in a condensed form, and they give people the option to start that expansion with a custom leveled character for it)

Finally, I have gotten rather addicted to Jeff's scathing rants of games. I think gameplay wise MGS5 is the winner but interms of large epic narrative TW3 takes the cake. But what do I know, I have yet to play either of them lol.

Wait so if I am hearing this right listening to this, Halo 5 has straight up P2W micro transactions for one of it's competitive modes ... and people are ok with this?

Or did they just explain it poorly? Because buying card packs to (even if randomly) get a tank or whatever in a match sure sounds like it.

Edit: ok I've read up on the system a bit and holy shit Halo really did go with p2w micro transactions, where you can buy packs to be able to deploy more powerful options more frequently, you can literally pay $ for an advantage vs. other players. Fuck.

Quite a bit of spoilerish talk about the Halo story. I don't care about it that much, but I wish y'all gave a bit of a heads up.

Whatever. Witcher 3 isn't there goty . Now I just want the gb community to give the GOTY to it LETS DO IT ! :)

"sony is in paris and they are going guerillas", i'm dieing

So uh... You just spoiled the fuck out of Halo 5?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o__mm9ghdGI

for the guy asking about the Bayou Billy game, watch these guys speed run the game and give live commentary whilst they do so. A fun watch, part of the yearly AGDQ/SGDQ marathon!!!

@terjay:

How exactly did they spoil Halo 5?

HELP THE BEAR

What is the name of the game they talk about where you fall down? And there is an underwater section?

@hypermog: downwell is the game you are looking for.

Seriously. I had some time to kill and have been listening to these last podcasts in succession right now/ since four hours ago, and when Rorie says "people have orgasmic experiences with the Witcher 3" it triggers Jeff to say "Those are the same people that say the same thing about Witcher 2". It's only been a week.

I don't care if all or none of them go back and finish it, but I wish Brad wouldn't have said back when he put it down that "I'll wait for the patch" or whatever because he does not ever go back. Like, at least Dan tried when he said he would. It's a little annoying.

PS. Beyond Good & Evil had a single Zelda dungeon right at the start and then hovercar races, escape sequences and major stealth sequences for the entire rest of that relatively short game. I love Zelda and appreciate the effort to make more games like it, but I have no idea how people can look at that game and be so stoked for a sequel beyond them just ending the first one badly on a cliffhanger. Being a cult hit is what that game deserved, and I just wish they wrapped it up better so people don't have to wait forever on a real conclusion that will never come. Okami had the right idea.

I still don't understand what they're talking about when they talk about Witcher 3 movement problems. My copy responds just like any other game. No problems whatsoever.

Rori is playing on PC so that can't be it. (I play on PC too.)
Maybe they are using the analogue sticks as digital sticks? (all or nothing?)

Wooop, 3 hours of awesome to get me through the morning at work LOVE THE BOMB

Are they really complaining about a free holiday celebration thing on Destiny? It's just a dumb seasonal thing not a DLC...

Hey guys you heard of this hot indie game The Witcher III?

@dannyhibiki:

Does Brad realize you can pull up the map with one button press in Witcher 3?

Guys let it gooooo, Witcher 3 is done for Giantbomb.com , the sooner you realise this the better. It won't win GOTY, it won't be top 10 , they will shit on this game even more when goty deliberations will come. And it is perfectly valid. We known GB for a long time to know their taste and preferences. The less you care about it, the more enjoyment you will get from podcasts.

@rmanthorp: I've only played Witcher the Third

At this point, I feel like the guys have talked more about not playing the Witcher 3, than about the game itself.

This is a bit deja vu-ey. It will be equally interesting if anyone that claims they are done with the Bombcast arrive in the comments to levy the same complaints.

The Witcher 3 crying is really getting boring. Ok, don't play through it if you lost interest, but stop talking about it like you know what the game is and always referencing UI and inventory clunkiness as one of the main reasons why you lost interest.

You guys are professional game journalists/critics, act like it. Losing interest and refusing to play a game that is very popular and people insist you experience, because it made a big impression on them, is not acting professionally. It's just childish.

Yes. EVERYONE on the staff (except Jeff, who'd barely played it) absolutely loved the game, and were declaring it as a top game of the year. When someone set in an email with the subject line "game of the year" the immediate response, before any of the rest of the email could be read, was "we've already talked about Witcher 3." The whole crew thought the game was magnificent, that the issues with the controls DIDN'T MATTER because of how good it was, and that it was a shoo in for game of the year.

That is why their behavior now bugs me so much. I played the game because of all the praise they were giving it. I actually took a break in playing it around the same time they did, and just got back to it last week after they started talking poorly about it, and I still was able to get back into it after a bit of time and still enjoyed the heck out of it, and played it until the end and I loved it. If they could get off their "I hate doing what other people want me to do" high horses and remember what they themselves said about the game and just get back to it properly, I'm quite sure they'd find that the things they loved are still there.

Thanks for making my miserable life a little less miserable

Syndicate is great, give it a shot. The grappling hook smooths over most of the lingering 10 year old control issues Dan dislikes.

@kaijufan: 1 Bombcast at a time.

MB coins in MGS5 are stored server side, so you cannot "cheatengine" them. Everything else is open to adjustment tho. Going offline doesn't matter as you have to be online to spend them and they get synced up from a server anyway.

VAC bans are only a thing specifically for VAC protected games (that are very few in number), which are generally just Valve competitive multiplayer titles. Unless the game in question is specifically VAC protected and you cheat in it Valve doesn't care if you cheat or mod your other stuff or single player experiences.

Oh yeah, FUCK yo coins, why would any sane human want to carry a bunch of extra metal in their pockets then necessary. The less the better.

@madcat6204: I dunno I think Brads explanation of it being a bunch of small grievances that finally catch up with you pretty easily explains the shift. Have you never played something you were extremely high on and had it degrade over time? It happens.

Grimes live, huh? I... really hope she polished her live act because for a while it was not great.

Dan calling AC's controls complicated, when he has continually championed old MGS controls, is kind of befuddling. Seems like a scenario where, had he a little more interest in the series, he'd have no trouble learning them.

MGS V got boring to me and I'm only halfway through. It actually pushed me back to The Witcher 3, and now I'm up to the part where you have to het Uma after all the Dandelion stuff. And I've been beasting in Gwent and the fist fights.

Just gotta say I lost my MGSV save due to Steam shenannigans after 12 hours and I've dropped the game and not come back (I've played every game in the series and MGS is a huge nostalgia bomb to me). Witcher 2 I tried to play a few times and finally sunk my teeth in before Witcher 3 was out and ended up really liking it. I'm loving the Witcher 3 (still playing through the story since release, and YES I took a long break and was able to come back) and I find it way more engaging than anything else this year. Why is too much content a downside in this game? It's too much GOOD content. You don't have to do everything - just follow the storyline. Great game and it's definitely a bummer the 180 these guys took on it. I think GBeast is more likely to give the game a fair shake.

Oh c'mon guys Chris Hadfield (a Canadian) is probably the most known astronaut at the moment.

Also Grimes is rad, saw her live last year and am seeing her next month.

Maybe it's just me being picky or overly critical, but Rorie's lack of knowledge sometimes drives me crazy. He's usually fine and knows quite a bit but there are certain times he feels like that uncle that has questions about video games but only knows a little bit. I think it mostly has to do with him saying things and then the other guys having to correct him. It happens on UPF too. I don't know, not trying to start a fight or be a dick, but just my 2 cents.

@foomanfat: I think that's probably true to an extent but even as someone who still really enjoys the AC games I have just long accepted that sometimes my dude is going to flip the fuck out on the geometry somewhere and make a crazy leap or frantically start vibrating up against a door or window frame.

It was awkward at first but I think the newer stuff with the Run Up and Run Down controls have alleviated a lot of that, for the vast majority of the time the game will no longer let you make an invalid movement so you don't really leap to your death anymore.. unless something bugs out.

Oddly enough that's caused a little bit of annoyance itself because sometimes I just want the game to let make absurd jumps and hope for the best.. stop worrying about my safety AC you're not my dad!

Looking forward to those old emails next week, @Brad.

Really surprised to hear Dan's thoughts on AC Syndicate. I don't think it's actually possible to jump off a roof to your death anymore. My experience has always been if you are holding R2 or R2 and X and get to a roof edge where there is no place on the other side to jump to, you will just stop. If you are holding R2 and O you will start climbing down the building. The only time I fell to my death was when I held O by mistake to drop and even then it gives you a bunch of time to realize you are fucking up. Once you get the grappling hook, it's basically batman where you can just straight murder fools.

when they started to talk about the witcher 3 part i thought i was mistakenly playing last week's episode, each person pretty much said the same thing in the same order. I know it's not your cup of tea but still, no need to be dicks to people who like it.

so many complaints, man. let's all take a squat, have a smoothie, and like- chilllllllll. yeah?

Not everyone is Jeff. ;) I've been a gamer for 25 years, and I guarantee I would be getting corrected left and right if I were to appear on this podcast.

@spitz1000: no need for people to keep hounding on them to play it either. It's not exactly encouraging.